Millar pulls out of British Olympic team

David Millar, one of Britain's best hopes for an Olympic gold medal, has pulled out of the Athens Games in August after admitting to taking drugs.

Milllar told a French judge he had used the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) in three week-long courses in 2001 and 2003.

Representatives for the British cycling world champion issued a statement confirming a decision which follows his suspension from competition by the British Cycling Federation.

Millar had hoped to contest at least three events, the time-trial and the road race and, on the track, the team pursuit, during the August Olympics.

The world time-trial cycling champion was placed under formal investigation under France's anti-drug laws for possession of dangerous substances.

And British Cycling's acting chief executive Dave Brailsford said they would be investigating the Scot.

"I confirm that David Millar is suspended with immediate effect pending a further investigation and a disciplinary hearing," he said.

He faces a ban of between eight months and two years.

His sister Frances, who is also his agent, said: "He did not want to live a lie any longer.

"He has told the judge the truth, but the main thing he wishes to make clear is that this was his individual decision and he has to take responsibility for his decisions."

The Scot made his admission last week during a two-hour interview in the Paris suburb of Nanterre with Richard Pallain, the judge leading the inquiry into alleged drug-taking within Millar's Cofidis team.

An admission of doping is regarded by the International Cycling Union as the equivalent of a positive test.

But the fact that Millar has never failed a drugs test raises questions about the efficiency of tests for EPO.

"Mr Millar has indicated that he used EPO during 'courses of treatment' taken outside France in 2001 and 2003," his lawyer Paul-Albert Iwens said.

"There were a total of three courses of one week. He has not implicated any other individuals."

Millar was training in the French Basque country up to the end of 2003, and it may be that the courses of treatment were taken over the border in Spain.

Millar had already admitted to using EPO during a 48-hour spell of detention for questioning after two capsules used to contain Eprex, a commonly used form of EPO, were found in his flat when it was searched by police.

As world time-trial champion and a three-time stage winner in the Tour de France, Millar is cycling's most high-profile casualty of a police drugs investigation since the Festina scandal of 1998.

The Tour de France starts on Saturday and many riders might now fear a knock on their hotel door by French police.

The 27-year-old is the ninth Cofidis team member to be placed under investigation in the police inquiry, which began in January after the arrest of a young Polish professional, Marek Rutkiewicz, at Charles de Gaulle airport.

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